David de Gea faces tough decision as Victor Valdes checks in at Manchester United Victor Valdes to sign 18-month contract with Premier League club The Spaniard will rival compatriot David de Gea for the No 1 shirt United are set to step up contract talks with De Gea to tie up his future By IAN LADYMAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL and ADAM CRAFTON FOR THE DAILY MAIL Of all the questions asked of the new regime at Manchester United recently, those concerning a new contract for David de Gea are among the most pertinent. Since Sir Alex Ferguson shut his office door behind him for the last time 18 months ago, the United goalkeeper has perhaps been the club’s most important player. Now De Gea has a recognised No 2 to compete with, in keeping with the modern trend in the Barclays Premier League. Instead of Scandinavian makeweight Anders Lindegaard, De Gea will soon have a three-time Champions League winner and Spanish international watching him from the substitutes’ bench. Certainly the De Gea/Victor Valdes dynamic will be an interesting one over the coming weeks. Valdes has only recently recovered from a serious knee injury but has not signed an 18-month contract at United just to pick his nose — to steal a memorable Lindegaard quote — and his relationship with manager Louis van Gaal and goalkeeping coach Frans Hoek is one that stretches back to the day 12 years ago when he was given his debut at Barcelona. Valdes will seek to play over the coming weeks but the wider issue — that of De Gea’s own future in Manchester — remains unclear; his current contract expires at the end of next season, with Real Madrid known to be interested. United chief executive Ed Woodward and De Gea’s agent Jorge Mendes have already spoken and it is understood that official meetings are now planned to accelerate the process. Mendes is a friend of the club, but is a friend of Real Madrid, too. Madrid need a replacement for Iker Casillas, who is will be 34 in May, and De Gea is the outstanding candidate by far. For United, the issue is clear and it is odd that they have not secured one of the world’s most valuable goalkeepers on a long-term deal already. Woodward says he is ‘relaxed’ about the issue, but the lure of Madrid is understandably strong for De Gea, and United can only hope that the expressed preferences of his family prove significant in the weeks to come. Certainly, when Sportsmail spent time talking to former coaches and childhood friends of De Gea in October, the indications were that both the player and his parents are content in Manchester. That has not changed. In truth, dad Jose and mum Marivi, who live with De Gea in the city, now enjoy a stress-free English lifestyle and have little desire to see De Gea return to the spotlight of the Spanish game. As one source close to the family said: ‘They are super-happy in Manchester. If it was all up to them, they would prefer for him to stay here. ‘In Spain, there would be huge pressure. You have four newspapers per day devoted to Real and Barcelona, invading your privacy. To replace Iker Casillas for both Spain and Real Madrid — can you imagine the scrutiny he would face?’ Van Gaal has no doubts about Valdes’s quality. Indeed, Hoek spoke glowingly about him last summer. ‘Victor is a goalkeeper, but he is also the 11th outfield player and able to construct moves,’ Hoek told a Dutch newspaper. ‘(Thibaut) Courtois at Chelsea, for example, has composure but he does not have this ability.’ Certainly Valdes is not in Manchester for a watching brief. He will challenge De Gea and that is how Van Gaal wants it. Just this week Valdes has been looking for accommodation in Wilmslow, where he will join the enclave of Spaniards that includes Juan Mata, Ander Herrera, Bojan Krkic and De Gea. An 18-month contract seems generous for a player who has only just recovered from such a serious injury and that would appear to suggest there was some competition from elsewhere for his signature; a more Machiavellian view would be that United are merely covering themselves in case De Gea’s contract talks don’t go well. There have been suggestions that United are prepared to make the Spaniard the best-paid goalkeeper in the world in order to keep him. Read more: dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2901125/David-Gea-faces-tough-decision-Victor-Valdes-checks-Manchester-United.html#ixzz3OE91tVe0 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 11:10:37 +0000
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